This invention relates to a connector, and more particularly to a connector having an improved locking arrangement.
There is known a conventional connector as shown in FIG. 8, in which a metal terminal 3, primarily retained in a terminal receiving chamber 5 provided in a housing 1 in a direction from a front to a rear of the housing, is secondarily retained by a retainer 2 inserted into the housing I from one side of the housing. In this connector, in a provisionally-retained condition (indicated by a solid line) of the retainer 2, when the metal terminal 3 is inserted, an engagement projection 14a of an engagement arm 14 is engaged with the metal terminal 3 to primarily retain the metal terminal 3. When the retainer 2 is farther pushed into a completely-retained position (indicated by a dots-and-dash line) in the direction indication by the arrow in FIG. 8, an engagement projection piece 22, formed on and projected from a top of the retainer 2, is fitted in a recess 33 formed in the metal terminal 3, thereby retaining the metal terminal 3 completely or secondarily.
A number of connectors of this kind, having their respective retainers 2 held in the provisionally-retained position (FIG. 8), are put in a container box or a container bag and are transferred for a terminal insertion step. Therefore, when some external force acts on the retainer 2 during the transfer, the retainer may be urged into the completely-retained position shown in FIG. 9. In this condition, the engagement projection piece 22 is received in the terminal receiving chamber 5 and prevents the insertion of the metal terminal 3. In order to effect the terminal insertion operation with respect to such a connector, the retainer 2 must be returned to the provisionally-retained position before the metal terminal 3 can be inserted. For thus returning the retainer 2 from the completely-retained position to the provisionally-retained position, it is necessary to release the engagement in the completely-retained position, using a tool. Such a release operation has made the insertion operation inefficient.